The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday directed all medical students, who have approached the court against the law on one-year compulsory service training in government hospitals, to submit individual undertakings for making themselves available to undergo the training if the final verdict goes against them.
This was a rider put on the petitioner-students by the court in its interim order of staying the Karnataka Compulsory Service Training by Candidates Medical Course Act, 2012 and the Rules.
The students had moved the court as the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences had only issued provisional degree/diploma certificates as the Act barred the university from awarding degrees for failure to undergo compulsory service training. And the Karnataka Medical Council refused to register them as it can enrol them as registered medical practitioners based on the final degree certificate and not the provisional one.
The Act, which came into force with effect from July 24 this year, applies to all candidates studying MBBS, PG, diploma, and super speciality courses in government, private and minority colleges in the State irrespective of the quota they belong to — merit, payment or NRI. One of the main contentions raised in the petitions were that one-year compulsory service training cannot be implemented retrospectively by forcing the students, who were already admitted to medial courses prior to enforcement of the new law.
Pointing out that many of those who have just completed super speciality or postgraduate courses are in the age group of 35 to 40, it was argued on behalf of the petitioner that sudden imposition of new law with retrospective effect would affect not only their career, but also put them into a difficult situation as many students had taken educational loan.
